The Labor enquirer., 1887-12-10
BLACKS OItk
Full Text ef His u6qs6 6,t m
ute to Oar lnFoere1
Conro1eG,
Their Lives and Aee1eeo 4evleWea ~
One Whs Knew 1hsn Wen
ard Lsved Thsn.

.||. Z. |. I|H|'|
BY request the EsouIRER pub
fishes the complete speech Of
Captain Black, at the funeral Of
our martyred heroes.
CAPTAIN BLACKS oRATIoN.
MANY ,ovedrru.h and iavishsd liSs's bsss I'll
Amid the dust Of books 70 nnd her.
coutent At last for guerdon oe their toll
win the cast mantle she has len behind her,
Many in sad faith sought her,
uanv With crossed hands sighed foe her,
put these. our brothers. foughtfor her,
Al tIIfe,s dear peril wrought fbr hsr.
40 loved her that they died Tor her.
Tasting the raptured sveetnsss
on her divine completeness.
Their higher instincts knew
Those love her best who 70 Themselves are
true.
And what they dared 70 dream Of, dared 10
do.
The followed her and found her.
Who're all may hope 70 nnd,
Not In the ashes OF the burnt-out mine.
But beautiful with dangers sweetness round
her. fla AZ
Where faith made whole With deed,
Brcathes its awakening breath
into the lifeless creed,
They saw her plumed and mailed,
With sweet, stern fkce unvailed,
And all repayins eyes looked proud on them
In death.
And what is truth1 Not state
ments oflifeless dogma, not words
here and there spoken that echo
through the corridors of time, but
the life-consecrated loyalty to the
conviction of duty, to the service
of that which is apprehended as
the highest and noblest and best.
a life that is thrown in the service
of humanity and not withheld
even unto death-this is truth.
Through eighteen centuries there
has come down to us the answer
Of that lowly but glorious One of
Nazareth to the question, what is
truth, in the words, am the truth.
No man knows the truth until
it has entered into his being. until
it has take possession OF him, until
it has become the inspiration of
his life and his crown in death.
And these men, even their cne-
mics being judges, have kept 10y
al to the conviction that entered
into their lives and became the
best part of themselves.
Whatever their mistakes of
judgment their hearts were wrap
ped up in the cause of the COM
mon people with that sublime in
fatuation OF self-sacriice which is
the one thing that lifts our human
ity up to the heights where sits
the eternal good.
am not here, dear friends, to
speak to you any special word
concerning the cause for which
Athese men lived, nor concerning
..She manner of their taking of, but
I to speak to you rather of them
selves, to tell you their love for
the cause which commanded their
services, was sealed at last by
their lives, not grudgingly, but
given with unstinted measure for
the sake Of those they loved. You
know, many of you, who have
read the press, how grandly they
shave passed out Of this lite that is
seen, into the perfect and glorious
I'te that is beyond the reach of
mIsludgment, of resentment or of
pain.
As the years 60 by-of which
their services will be a sublime
part they will come to be known,
10 be loved, to be revered. | am
not here to talk Of their violent
Death as of an ignominious death.
We are here by the bodies of
'nose who we're sublime in their
'eu'sacnhce, and for whom the
Slooe' became a glorious altar.
'ney moved to their doom slow
Vaecd but strong. No faltering,
no turning back.
Upon the morning of that fatal
uaS as August Spies stood within
VIC Tery shadow of his tomb. he
,''o 70 one near him, who is here
,0-uay to bear witness: This
q@,'u p$, Is as steady as when in the
QId days u he.r,., ~, LII. H., ~;.,.